Transcript Slide 1
Crayons to College and Career
Ready
The Neuroscience of Resilience
Linda Graham, MFT
USCA Fall Conference 2014
November 14, 2014
Crayons to College and Career
Ready
The Neuroscience of Resilience
Linda Graham, MFT
[email protected]
www.lindagraham-mft.net
415-924-7765
Factors of Resilience
Hardiness
Determination, grit, capacities to last, endure,
to persevere and follow through
Flexibility
Adaptability, capacity to shift gears
Coping
Face and deal with disappointments,
difficulties, even disasters
Resilience
Deal with challenges and crises
Bounce back from adversity
Recover our balance and equilibrium
Find refuges and maximize resources
Cope skillfully, flexibly, adaptively
Shift perspectives, open to possibilities, create
options, find meaning and purpose
Resilience for Students
Manage impulses, appropriate behavior
Curiosity, openness to learning and change
Process-encode information into memory
Use information creatively and productively
Imagine, think, plan
Navigate social world, social intelligence
Empathic interactions with others
Develop identity, core values, moral compass
Contribute to larger community, world
Modern Brain Science
The field of neuroscience is so new,
we must be comfortable not only
venturing into the unknown
but into error.
- Richard Mendius, M.D.
Neuroscience of Resilience
Neuroscience technology is 20 years old
Meditation improves attention and impulse
control; shifts mood and perspective; promotes
health
Oxytocin can calm a panic attack in less than a
minute
Kindness and comfort, early on, protects against
later stress, trauma, psychopathology
Neuroplasticity
Growing new neurons
Strengthening synaptic connections
Myelinating pathways – faster processing
Creating and altering brain structure and
circuitry
Organizing and re-organizing functions of brain
structures
The brain is shaped by experience. And because
we have a choice about what experiences we
want to use to shape our brain, we have a
responsibility to choose the experiences that
will shape the brain toward the wise and the
wholesome.
- Richard J. Davidson, PhD
Mechanisms of Brain Change
Conditioning
New Conditioning
Re-Conditioning
De-Conditioning
Conditioning
Experience causes neurons to fire
Repeated experiences, repeated neural firings
Neurons that fire together wire together
Strengthen synaptic connections
Connections stabilize into neural pathways
Conditioning is neutral, wires positive and
negative
Attachment Styles - Secure
Parenting is attuned, empathic, responsive,
comforting, soothing, helpful
Attachment develops safety and trust, and
inner secure base
Stable and flexible focus and functioning
Open to learning
inner secure base provides buffer against
stress, trauma, and psychopathology
Insecure-Avoidant
Parenting is indifferent, neglectful, or critical,
rejecting
Attachment is compulsively self-reliant
Stable, but not flexible
Focus on self or world, not others or emotions
Rigid, defensive, not open to learning
Neural cement
Insecure-Anxious
Parenting is inconsistent, unpredictable
Attachment is compulsive caregiving
Flexible, but not stable
Focus on other, not on self-world,
Less able to retain learning
Neural swamp
Disorganized
Parenting is frightening or abusive, or parent is
“checked out,” not “there”
Attachment is fright without solution
Lack of focus
Moments of dissociation
Compartmentalization of trauma
Pre-Frontal Cortex
Development kindled in relationships
Executive center of higher brain
Evolved most recently – makes us human
Matures the latest – 25 years of age
Most integrative structure of brain
Evolutionary masterpiece
CEO of resilience
Functions of Pre-Frontal Cortex
Regulate body and nervous system
Quell fear response of amygdala
Manage emotions
Attunement – felt sense of feelings
Empathy – making sense of expereince
Insight and self-knowing
Response flexibility
Evolutionary legacy
Genetic templates
Family of origin conditioning
Norms-expectations of culture-society
Who we are and how we cope….
…is not our fault.
- Paul Gilbert, The Compassionate Mind
Given neuroplasticity
And choices of self-directed neuroplasticity
Who we are and how we cope…
…is our responsibility
- Paul Gilbert, The Compassionate Mind
New Conditioning
Choose new experiences
Gratitude practice, listening skills, focusing
attention, self-compassion, self-acceptance
Create new learning, new memory
Encode new wiring
Install new pattern of response
Re-conditioning
Memory de-consolidation – re-consolidation
“Light up” neural networks
Juxtapose old negative with new positive
Neurons fall apart, rewire
New rewires old
Modes of Processing
Focused Attention
Tasks and details
Deliberate, guided change
New conditioning and re-conditioning
De-focused Attention
Default network
Mental play space – random change
De-conditioning
De-Conditioning
Default network
De-focusing, loosens grip of attention
Creates mental play space, free association
Can drop into worry, rumination
Plane of open possibilities
Brain makes new links, associations
New insights, aha!s, new behaviors
De-Conditioning
Imagination
Guided visualizations
Guided meditations
Reverie, daydreams
Brain “plays,” makes own associations and
links, connect dots in new ways
Reflect on new insights
Practices to Accelerate Brain Change
Presence – primes receptivity of brain
Intention/choice – activates plasticity
Perseverance – creates and installs change
Mindfulness and Compassion
Awareness of what’s happening
(and our reactions to what’s happening)
Acceptance of what’s happening
(and our reactions to what’s happening)
Attention circuit and resonance circuit
Two most powerful agents of brain change known to
science; both foster response flexibility
Take Mental Breaks
Focus on something else (positive is good)
Focus for more than a few minutes (flow is
good)
Talk to someone else (resonant is good)
Move-walk somewhere else (nature is good)
Every 90 minutes; avoid adrenal fatigue
Boundin’ video
6 C’s of Coping
Calm
Compassion
Clarity
Connections to Resources
Competence
Courage
Calm
Manage disruptive emotions
Tolerate distress
Down-regulate stress to return to baseline
equilibrium
Compassion – Self-Compassion
Compassion: care and concern in the face of other people’s
pain and suffering
Self-Compassion: care and concern for one’s own pain and
suffering
Mindful Self-Compassion:
Awareness of experience of suffering
Kindness toward self as experiencer of suffering
Felt sense of common humanity; all human beings suffer
Clarity
Focused attention on present moment
experience
Improves cognitive functioning
Self-awareness, self-reflection
Shifting perspectives
Discerning options
Choose wise actions
Connections to Resources
People, Places Practices
Counter-balance brain’s negativity bias
Strengthen inner secure base
Access resources
Competence
Empowerment and mastery from changing old
coping strategies, learning new ones
Embodying, “I am somebody who CAN do
this.”
Courage
Using signal anxiety as cue to:
Try something new
Take risks
Persevere to achieve goals
A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for. -
Grace Hopper
Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone.
Otherwise, it would be called sure thing-taking.
-Tim McMahon
Keep Calm and Carry On
Serenity is not freedom from the storm
but peace amidst the storm.
- author unknown
Hand on the Heart
Touch – oxytocin – safety and trust
Deep breathing – parasympathetic
Breathing ease into heart center
Brakes on survival responses
Coherent heart rate
Being loved and cherished
Oxytocin – direct and immediate antidote to
stress hormone cortisol
Benefits of Self-Compassion
Normalize vulnerability as part of human
condition
Not weak or selfish; powerful motivator out of
care and wishes for well-being
Less anxiety, depression, stress, rumination,
shame, fear of failure
Greater responsibility for past mistakes
More self-confidence and resilience
Self-Compassion Break
Notice-recognize: this is a moment of suffering
Ouch! This hurts! This is hard!
Pause, breathe, hand on heart or cheek
Oh sweetheart!
Self-empathy
I care about my own suffering, me as experiencer
Drop into calm; hold moment with awareness; breathe
in compassion and care
May I meet this moment fully; may I meet it as a friend
Share experience with resonant other
Mindfulness
Pause, become present
Notice and name
Step back, dis-entangle, reflect
Catch the moment; make a choice
Shift perspectives; shift states
Discern options
Choose wisely – let go of unwholesome,
cultivate wholesome
Between a stimulus and response there is a
space. In that space is our power to choose
our response. In our response lies our growth
and our freedom. The last of human freedoms
is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances.
- Viktor Frankl
Autobiography in Five Short
Chapters – Portia Nelson
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost…I am helpless
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit
My eyes are open,
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
-Portia Nelson
Positive Emotions-Behaviors
Brain hard-wired to notice and remember
negative and intense more than positive and
subtle; how we survive as individuals and as a
species
Leads to tendency to avoid experience
Positive emotions activate “left shift,” brain is
more open to approaching experience,
learning, and action
Positive Emotions
Less stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness
More friendships, social support, collaboration
Shift in perspectives, more optimism
More creativity, productivity
Better health, better sleep
Live on average 7-9 years longer
Resilience is direct outcome
Take in the Good
Notice: in the moment or in memory
Savor: locate felt sense in body
Absorb: savor 10-20-30 seconds
Positivity Portfolio
Ask 10 friends to send cards or e-mails
expressing appreciation of you
Assemble phrases on piece of paper
Tape to bathroom mirror or computer monitor,
carry in wallet or purse
Read phrases 3 times a day for 30 days
Savor and appreciate
True Other to the True Self
The roots of resilience are to be found in the felt
sense of being held in the mind and heart of an
empathic, attuned, and self-possessed other.
- Diana Fosha, PhD
To see and be seen: that is the question, and
that is the answer.
- Ken Benau, PhD
Shame De-Rails Resilience
Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience
of believing we are flawed and therefore
unworthy of acceptance and belonging.
Shame erodes the part of ourselves that believes
we are capable of change. We cannot change and
grow when we are in shame, and we can’t use
shame to change ourselves or others.
- Brene Brown, PhD
Ah, the comfort,
The inexpressible comfort
Of feeling safe with a person.
Having neither to weigh out thoughts
Nor words,
But pouring them all right out, just as they are,
Chaff and grain together;
Certain that a faithful hand
Will take them and sift them;
Keeping what is worth keeping and,
With the breath of kindness,
Blow the rest away.
- Dinah Craik
Relational Intelligence
Asking for and receiving help
Compassionate listening
Setting limits and boundaries
Negotiating change
Resolving conflicts
Repairing ruptures
Forgiveness
Find the Gift in the Mistake
Regrettable Moment – Teachable Moment
What’s Right with this Wrong?
What’s the Lesson?
What’s the Cue to Act Differently?
Find the Silver Lining and Positive Change
Coherent Narrative
This is what happened.
This is what I did.
This has been the cost.
This is what I learned.
This is what I would do differently going
forward.
Do One Scary Thing a Day
Venture into New or Unknown
Somatic marker of “Uh, oh”
Dopamine disrupted
Cross threshold into new
Satisfaction, mastery
Dopamine restored
I am no longer afraid of storms,
For I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott
Crayons to College and Career
Ready
The Neuroscience of Resilience
Linda Graham, MFT
[email protected]
www.lindagraham-mft.net
415-924-7765